The invention relates to a method of removing units, in particular defective units, from detachably connected layers of material webs, from endless strips or laminate webs which have a multiplicity of units, and also relates to embodiments of laminate webs, in particular those from which defective units have essentially been removed.
In the prior art, labels or tags are produced in the form of an endless strip with prepared separating locations. Such endless strips are produced in certain roll or stack quantities, e.g. with zigzag folding. It is frequently the case in the production of such endless strips that many of the individual units, e.g. labels or tags, are defective.
Among the overall number of usable units of a roll or of a stack, a predetermined number of defective units is not to be exceeded. This may be necessary, in particular, for samples, for tests or else for series production. If, during production, the predetermined number of defective units is exceeded, the roll or the stack is not accepted, or bought, by the customer.
If, for example, labels, tags or components such as electronic identification components, e.g. RFID transponders, chips and the like, are integrated in the separable units of endless webs, in the case of which a plurality of layers are laminated to give a detachable composite arrangement, it is not possible to rule out the situation where, during the integration and subsequent finishing-off operation, some of the initially operable identification components become inoperable and this results in defective units in endless webs, with the result that said units have to be removed from the web and the endless webs have to be reproduced. This requires the formation of so-called adhesive locations. The formation of adhesive locations has been practiced in various ways in the paper industry for decades.
Endless webs of labels or tags, e.g. self-adhesive labels, or tags provided with pressure sensitive adhesive, usually have prepared and marked predetermined separating locations between the individual units, in order for individual units easily to be formed from the endless web during use.
The object of the invention is to provide a design of predetermined separating locations between units in endless laminate webs of labels, tags or admission passes which permits individual units to be separated out of the web and the endless web to be reproduced in a straightforward manner, and to present a method of removing units and of reproducing the web.
This object is achieved by a method of removing units from laminate webs which have a multiplicity of units which are arranged adjacent to one another in the web direction and can be separated from one another at predetermined separating locations arranged transversely to the web-running direction, and of reproducing continuous laminate webs, it being the case that the laminate webs have a substrate layer and, on the top side of the latter, a multiplicity of labels, tags or admission passes which can be detached therefrom and, together with the substrate layer, form a unit, and the substrate layer has at least one additional, prepared separating line which is offset in the web-running direction in relation to the predetermined separating locations of the laminate webs and is arranged transversely to the web-running direction, said method being implemented by
(i) the substrate layer of a unit which is to be removed being severed along the additional, offset separating line and that end of the substrate layer which is connected to the first adjacent unit being detached from the label, tag or admission pass as far as the predetermined separating location between the unit which is to be removed and the first adjacent unit,
(ii) by the substrate layer being severed along the offset, additional separating line of the second adjacent unit, at the other end of the unit which is to be removed, and by that end of the substrate layer which is connected to the unit which is to be removed being detached from the label, tag or admission pass of the second adjacent unit as far as the predetermined separating location between the unit which is to be removed and the second adjacent unit,
it also being possible for the steps (i) and (ii) to be carried out in reverse order,
(iii) by the unit which is to be removed being separated off from the laminate web at the predetermined separating location between the unit which is to be removed and the first adjacent unit, with the result that the substrate layer projects beyond the end of the first adjacent unit,
(iv) by the unit which is to be removed being separated off from the laminate web at the predetermined separating location between the unit which is to be removed and the second adjacent unit, with the result that the label, the tag or admission pass of the second adjacent unit projects beyond the end of the substrate layer,
it also being possible for the steps (iii) and (iv) to be carried out in reverse order, or it also being possible for the unit which is to be removed to be separated off from the respectively adjacent unit, at the predetermined separating location between the unit which is to be removed and the respectively adjacent unit, even just following the respective detachment of the end of the substrate layer according to (i) or (ii),
(v) by the top side of that piece of the substrate layer which projects beyond the end of the first adjacent unit being joined together with the substrate-layer side of that piece of the label, tag or admission pass of the second adjacent unit which projects beyond the end of the substrate layer, in order for a continuous laminate web to be formed again from the separated parts.
The solution often includes the design of a laminate web which has a multiplicity of units which are arranged adjacent to one another in the web-running direction and can be separated from one another at predetermined separating locations arranged transversely to the web-running direction, it being the case that the laminate web has a substrate layer and, on the top side of the latter, a multiplicity of labels, tags or admission passes which can be detached therefrom and in which there is integrated in each case one magnetic or electronic storage element which can be provided, by contact or in a contact-free manner, with data which can be stored and retrieved again, and the labels, tags or admission passes, together with the substrate layer, form a unit, and the substrate layer has at least one additional, prepared separating line which is offset in the web-running direction in relation to the predetermined separating locations of the laminate web, is arranged transversely to the web-running direction and is formed in the substrate layer as a perforation or non-continuous cut.
The dependent claims deal with particularly advantageous embodiments of the invention.
The method according to the invention has the advantage that units, for example defective units, can be removed from the laminate webs without any great difficulty, and the split in a laminate web is connected by the remaining, neighboring units such that there is no thickened adhesive location following removal of a unit. The method according to the invention makes it possible to obtain laminate webs which contain 3% of defective units or less, preferably 1% of defective units or less.
The operations of detaching the label, tag or admission pass from the substrate layer and joining the layers together again may well reduce the adhesion of the label, tag or admission pass on the substrate layer, but in most cases this has so little effect, in the region of the adhesive location, on the tensile strength of the laminate web in the web-running direction that this formation of the adhesive location is accepted by the users of the webs of labels, tags or admission passes.